Card readers allow students to check meal balance

A system to check meal balances online is in the planning stages.

By Jessi Turnure

Published Sept. 14, 2010

As of last week, students are able to check their meal plan balances via card readers located at the registers in the Emporium at Plaza 900, Time Out at the Pavilion at Dobbs and Rollins dining hall.

"The cashiers' registers could handle transactions but could not read balances," Campus Dining Services spokesman Andrew Lough said. "It was a priority to get a solution as quickly as possible."

Lough said the activity readers are easy to use; students simply swipe their cards to see their meal balances.

Due to a glitch in a software upgrade during the summer for the dining plan access system database, the dining halls no longer have the ability to tell customers the number of meals remaining on their cards. Students with EZ Charge or points can find out their weekly available balance by asking any dining hall cashier to do a balance inquiry.

"I haven't heard any complaints," Emporium Assistant Manager Kristen Hasan said. "The only thing is if the reader sits a while unused, you have to reset it and wait a little to be able to use it."

Time Out employee Lisa Lee said having the readers are easier for students and staff, because students no longer need staff's help to check their card balances.

Lough said before CDS installed the activity readers, its office phones were constantly ringing every day with students requesting the remaining amounts on their cards. The offices were receiving so many phone calls that it had to bring in more people just to answer the phones.

"I always just call the office and ask how many (meals) I used and how many I have left," freshman Britney Howard said. "I've never used the readers."

Lough said CDS has received mostly positive feedback from customers. Students no longer have to wait on the phone for employees to look up their information and the office is receiving many fewer phone calls.

"The readers make checking my balance a lot easier because the dining hall services number they give you to call is only open at certain times," freshman Mike Roth said.

Freshman Caroline Sanner said she used the scanner a couple days ago and found it convenient.

"I like not having to wait in line at the dining halls to check my meal balance," Sanner said.

CDS also upgraded many of the cash register systems in various dining halls.

"With the new system, you have to swipe out one meal at a time and sometimes it freezes up," Lee said. "But overall, the new computer systems are simpler to use than the old ones."

Lough said the biggest project in the near future for CDS is a collaborative effort with the Division of Information Technology to set up an online ID card system. Once installed, students will be able to login to a website for balance inquiry and to update their meal plans.